It’s been a while since anyone serious about Internet browsing mentioned "Netscape" and "browser" in the same sentence. This may change as Netscape just announced the 8.0 version of their browser. Features such as RSS notification, tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, and probably most notably the phishing alert.

AOL (owner of Netscape) has implemented the phishing alert function by downloading from AOL servers three times a day a list of Web sites known to be trusted or not-to-be-trusted, as verified by the non-profit TRUSTe organization, VeriSign or ParetoLogic. When a blacklisted site is encountered, Netscape will direct the user to a Web page saying the site isn’t to be trusted and require them to hit the "continue anyway" button before going to the Web page.

Also, in every browser tab is a shield icon that tells users whether the site they are visiting is a trusted site or not. A trusted site gets a green shield, while blacklisted sites get a red shield; sites that haven’t been verified one way or the other are denoted by a gray shield icon. Clicking on the shield takes users to the Site Control feature, allowing surfers to modify the security rating of the page they’re currently visiting as well as enabling Java, cookies, ActiveX controls and other security features.

Another interesting feature is the dual rendering engine - IE and Firefox. By default, it will use the IE engine, but if the user visits a site that is not trusted, Netscape will automatically switch to the Firefox rendering engine, which is better at handling unsafe content.

Nice features and promises by AOL, but time will show whether consumers will be able to put aside the negative memories of Netscape 4.75 and start using the new and improved Netscape 8.

[Via InternetNews.com -]

As the title says, you can see this pretty long Slashdot thread for good and not-so-good tips on identity theft prevention One of the good ones,.

Burn the papers. Keep a pile of them, and once every few months, toss
them on a fire. It’s the only solution for the paranoid.

[Via Slashdot -]

Another review on "pharming" and how it slowly makes its way as a tool for obtaining personal and confidential information by posing as a legitimate site.

Recent pharming attacks have taken advantage of old and insecure
implementations of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) technology, the
dominant DNS software used on the Internet, and vulnerable default
configurations on some versions of Windows 2000 systems that were
acting as DNS servers, according to the Internet Storm Center.

Although upgrading and plugging holes in DNS server software, a more robust and secure DNS infrastructure may be needed, according to Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of DNS and now chief scientist at
Nominum Inc., a provider of Internet name and address services based in
Redwood City, California

[Via eWeek, MA -]

Hackers are flexible and smart people When they sense mass (and not always technically savvy) consumers adopting new technologies which can be hacked for fun and protift - they shift gears as well.

Online criminals turned their attention to
antivirus software and media players in the first three months of 2005,
as they sought new ways to take control of peoples’ computers,
according to a survey released on Monday.

Hackers continued to poke new holes in Microsoft’s popular Windows
operating system, but they increasingly exploited flaws in software
made by other companies as well, the non-profit SANS Institute found.

[Via ZDNet UK, UK -]

The police are not immune from cyber-attack.

A UK police chief has been bombarded with
thousands of threatening emails in a denial of service attack aimed at
crippling his force’s computer systems.

At one point just before the bank holiday weekend, 2,000 emails an hour
were being sent to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) chief constable
Michael Todd.

[Via ZDNet UK, UK -]

A report by ZDNet quotes Webroot’s research, according to which, spyware was found on 88 percent of consumer computers and 87 percent of business computers scanned by Webroot between January and April.

"Our research shows that some form of spyware, adware or potentially
unwanted software can be found on 87 percent of corporate PCs," said
Richard Stiennon, Webroot’s vice-president of threat research. "This
figure is disconcerting from a security perspective and also from an IT
support perspective, as spyware can often slow down the performance of
an entire network."

Webroot research, however, can be questioned, at least as it was quoted by ZDNet, because they don’t describe how they define a "spyware." Many anti-spyware programs includecookes that are placed by advertisers or other web publishers in the "spyware found" count. If Webroot included these cookies as "spyware hit" then their research is misleading.

Another number proposed by Webroot is that spyware writers are generating $2 billion annually. Again, no methods for obtaining this number were given.

[Via ZDNet UK, UK -]

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